I can see that there could be many useful bit's of information that could be asked for in signing up for a forum, but at the same time there is also a need to keep the level of compulsory information down, so as to not scare off prospective members.
George, I understand you're comment about proper names (and I don't use mine) but I also understand the WWW. That is what was the WWW (a place to look up information), what it's grown into under forums, blogs and community sights like FB and Google+ (what is known as Web2), but there is also a hidden one called DeepWeb.
Out of curiosity I took a peek - I now know what the 'B' stand for!Because of this I keep my interest areas separate with different usernames, so as to prevent a DeepWeb search bringing up all my YouTube, Origami, Woodturning, Games etc., links and interests in one go.
Any information above a 'Username' and a working e-mail address, must be voluntary.